Reviews for Yours Ever: People and Their Letters

The average rating for Yours Ever: People and Their Letters based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2009-12-30 00:00:00 Guy Smith Thomas Mallon's previous book about people and their diaries ("A Book of One's Own") was extraordinary - it set the standard by which any other books on the topic should be judged. It didn't seem possible for his subsequent book on plagiarism ("Stolen Words") to reach the same level of excellence, but it did. It's perhaps not altogether surprising that this latest book didn't match the brilliance of the earlier two (if nothing else, the statistical phenomenon of regression toward the mean would be expected to take effect at some point). It's not that this is a bad book - it's just not particularly interesting. Mallon appears to have dragged out the writing over a period of 15 years, which conveys the definite impression that he just lost interest. It's unclear why he would think the reader's reaction would be any different. In fact, the lukewarm nature of his introduction (to his own book ) suggests that he knows that the book fails to reach his earlier standards. The book's content is roughly one third direct quotation from various letters, flanked by Mallon's introduction and commentary. The 300 or so pages of text are divided into nine thematic groupings: Absence, Friendship, Advice, Complaint, Love, Spirit, Confession, War, and Prison. In general, the book would have benefitted had Mallon opted for more extensive quotation from fewer correspondents. Many of the people from whose letters he quotes are just not all that interesting, and his bridging text does not make it adequately clear why they have been chosen for inclusion. The inevitable result is that the reader is left wishing that the witless had been sacrificed to make room for more material from those with genuine wit and insight. I find it hard to summon up more than two stars. An infinitely better book is the collection edited by Andrew Carroll, "Letters of a Nation", published in 1997. It's interesting to note that this is the year that Mallon had targeted for initial publication of this book. He just plain missed the boat.

Review # 2 was written on 2010-01-24 00:00:00 John Pogan 1 of 1 people found the following review helpful: 4.0 out of 5 stars Not What I Expected, But Still a Wonderful Read, January 15, 2010 Yours Ever was not the book I expected it to be. I thought it would be a collection of letters from a variety of people and characters throughout history along with brief asides, historical commentary, and the like by Thomas Mallon. Instead Yours Ever is organized in thematic chapters on nine broad topics like Friendship, Advice, and War. Also, it does not include full reprints of letters, but instead utilizes block quotes interspersed with historical information and commentary about the function of letters in that particular period or setting. While it was not what I expected it to be at all, it is still a lovely read. The thematic organiztion works well as Mallon is able to combine a variety of historical people and settings within one chapter, and it is marvelous to see the similarities and differences between two nineteenth century African-American women writing to one another and two wealthy American and European women writing to each other in the twentieth century. Yours Ever is lengthy and full of details without being long-winded. I found myself rereading certain quotes and passages from letters that were especially memorable. Mallon's historical details are also spot on. They provide enough context to gain a greater understanding of the letters and their writers without being distracting from the subject of letter writing. While I very much enjoyed reading this book I'm glad I borrowed it from the library instead of purchasing it; I'm not sure that it has a high reread value. However, if I were still enrolled in grad school the reread and research potential would be greatly increased and it would then be a book worth purchasing. Also, the extensive bibliography is great if you are looking for further reading on this subject.